Editorial [info. for conference authors publishing in the Journal]

The Editor-in-Chief takes this opportunity to write a short message about the procedures that were set up for developing manuscripts for the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering from papers presented at OCEANS conferences. The guidelines were necessary to provide authors with a means to generate a peer-reviewed paper from their research work that was presented at the conference. The procedures in place at the JOURNAL are consistent with the IEEE policies on the reuse of previously published material. My message here is to remind authors that the same guidelines and requirements also apply for developing and submitting manuscripts from papers presented at other conferences and workshops and are not limited to only those events sponsored by the IEEE. If there is an archive created of the work presented at the conference, the same problem of duplication of previously published material can arise and must be addressed. At the JOURNAL we use the measure of 30%-35% similarity as a maximum level of duplication. The guidelines for authors of OCEANS papers were outlined in an editorial last October (ibid., vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 601-602, Oct. 2013). From the limited experience so far, it appears that the procedures are working reasonably well, but I need to make a few remarks here as reminders of the requirements. Authors must acknowledge the previous publication and presentation history of the paper. Our website for submitting manuscripts asks this question specifically, and authors can provide additional explanation in their cover letter. Authors must also reference the conference paper in the text of the manuscript that is being submitted.